


Never Let Me Go

by whimsical_ramblings



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Tanker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-17 03:16:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11266803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsical_ramblings/pseuds/whimsical_ramblings
Summary: If Big Boss had been right about one thing, it was this: the nightmares really do never go away.orDave has night terrors, and Hal does his best to help him through them.





	Never Let Me Go

**Author's Note:**

> Wowee I haven't written for this fandom in 80 years but here we go.
> 
> Post-Tanker, which is when I've always heacannoned that Snake and Otacon start their sexual/romantic relationship.

Dave was no stranger to nightmares.

In his line of work, they were almost a certainty. No one could do the things he’d done without some of it coming back to haunt them. And while the military had implemented certain practices to deal with the mental health of its soldiers, Dave had shirked them all for an isolated cabin and a bottle of whisky. The burden of his actions was his to carry, and for over a decade, he’d carried it alone.

The subject and intensity of the nightmares always varied. Sometimes they were hazy and incorporeal; a cloud of thoughts and feelings and emotions that bubbled up in his mind until it eventually burst, waking him from sleep with the echoes of screams still rattling around in his head. Other times, they were so vivid that it was difficult to distinguish them from reality. His first kill, a child soldier he’d watched get gunned down during the Gulf War, the sensation of water filling his lungs as he’d sunk into the Hudson river. Like ghosts of the past that only showed themselves behind closed eyelids.

For the most part, Dave tried to ignore them. He’d fall asleep, wake up in a cold sweat sometime during the night, and after having a smoke or dunking his head under the bathroom faucet, he’d go back to bed again. But keeping the dreams to himself became harder once he and Hal began sleeping together. Kicking and thrashing during the night was one thing when you slept alone, but when someone was lying next to you, it wasn’t exactly easy to hide.

The first time it happened, Hal had been scared out of his wits. Dave had warned him about his occasional nightmares, but nothing had prepared the man for the level of intensity some of them could reach. When Dave had woken to Hal shaking his shoulders, tears welling up in his eyes as he desperately tried to calm him down, his pride had taken a huge hit. Not only that, but the prospect of making Hal shoulder this problem wasn’t something he was comfortable doing if he could avoid it. However, when he suggested the next morning that they go back to sleeping alone, Hal wasn’t easily swayed.

“Maybe I can help you,” he’d proposed.

Dave had shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to worry about it. It’s fine, trust me.”

“Well, it didn’t look fine to me,” Hal argued. “And besides, you can’t just tell me not to worry about you. That’s not how this works”.

And as much as he’d wanted to, he hadn’t been able to think of anything to counter what Hal was saying. Especially since he knew if their positions had been flipped, he’d feel the same way.

“Let’s just see if we can find a way to work around it,” Hal’d suggested. “And who knows, maybe having someone next to you at night will help.”

So, against his own reluctance, they’d continued sharing a bed. Dave would wake up one or two nights a week in a cold sweat, and Hal would do his best to calm him down. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. One night, he’d lashed out in his sleep and accidently given Hal a black eye, and it’d taken a full hour of arguing for him to convince Dave to let their arrangement continue.

Which, in all honestly, Dave was grateful for. Because eventually, he started to notice a change. The nightmares became less frequent, less intense, and Hal developed a system for dealing with them when they did arise. He could sometimes hear Hal’s voice through the fog of his dreams whispering words of solace in his ear, and when he woke up, his presence instantly calmed him down. He was even able to pacify his thrashing over a period of time, which put an end to Dave’s safety concerns. And after a while, just having Hal next to him could keep his nightmares at bay for months at a time.

But on one particular night, Dave became trapped in one of the worst dreams he’d had since Hal started helping him. He was back in Zanzibarland, Big Boss standing before him, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t block out the man’s words.

_The nightmares? They never go away, Snake._

“Stop…” he tried to say.

_Once you've been on the battlefield, tasted the exhilaration, the tension... it all becomes part of you. Once you've awakened the warrior within... it never sleeps again._

“Stop it…”

_As a mercenary, I'd think you would have realized that by now. You care nothing for power, or money, or even sex. The only thing that satisfies your cravings is war._

“I’m not like that…”

_All I've done is give you a place for it._

“I don’t need you…”

_I've given you a reason to live._

“No, I don’t enjoy the killing, I...”

_Yes, you do._

“No.”

_I will do you a favor, and release you from your suffering._

“What...what are you-?”

_Should be an easy job. You don't even have a weapon._

And then, his world erupted in an explosion of gunpowder and fire and the smell of burning flesh.

***

Dave woke up with a cry stuck in his throat, chest heaving, hair slicked back with sweat. His lungs ached, his muscles trembled, but the solid weight of someone’s arms around him kept him grounded. As he started to come back to himself, he felt thin fingers running through his hair, and a soft voice murmured words of comfort to him.

“It’s alright,” it said. “It’s alright. You’re not alone. I’m here.”

 _Who’s here?_ he thought at first. _Where’s here? What’s going on?_

His eyes flew open, breaths still coming out in shuddering gasps, and he was met with Hal’s gray gaze staring back at him. Recognition must have dawned on Dave's face, because Hal’s expression changed from concern to relief.

“There you are,” he said.

“Hal?” Dave asked, voice rasping.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he answered. “Don’t worry. You’re safe.”

Dave couldn’t bring himself to respond. Instead, he buried his face in Hal’s shoulder, concentrating on the warmth of his skin through the t-shirt he was wearing. Hal continued to hold him throughout the night; running a hand down his back, peppering his forehead with a kiss every now and then, his words drowning out the ones from his dream.

It’s alright.

I’m here.

You’re safe.

You’re safe.

You’re safe.

And even though there was a world of difference in the level of physical strength between the two of them, when Hal’s arms were wrapped around him like this, Dave knew he was right. He was safe.


End file.
